The real question is, who gets his benchwork!!
It’s free but you have to pay for shipping. 
Yeah, I hear aircraft carrier rentals can be pricey. 
Bit of a late spring update, a few changes since Cliff swung past a few Sunday’s ago.
I had a club meet planned for Sept, and I realised with loop to loop there was a single track section that needed constant changing of points to work. With conversation sometimes taking precedence over operating (for one or two members) I could see a cornfield meet in their future.
I tried to do sprung throws, but couldn’t get them to work reliably.
Plan B - install a quick ‘n dirty bypass on the single section to make a full loop. About 50’ long in the end. Had to use #5 turnouts so not quite FCR mainline specs.
All went well on the day, terrible forecast with gale winds and rain - cleared at 10 am just in time to make the Yes call.
I’ve also made good progress on the tunnel project. Ever since Korm posted his styrofoam tunnels I wanted to make some in concrete for outdoors. I’ll post the gory details in the concrete casting thread, but here’s some highlights.
Mold prep in one of the original tunnel castings
Making a form
3 freshies…
Sizing it all up
Dun.
The coal bin inched along too, got some some timber cut. Need to somehow find space on the bench for assembly.
That’s about all for now, thanks for checking in.
Cheers
N
90 days till the Convention…
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Neil, that bypass looks perfect! I can’t quite tell, but it seems you didn’t have to modify existing benchwork much, or at all?
So glad your meet went well, I’ll bet they were as amazed as I was at your switches, track, rockwork, and everythings else!
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Neil,
That’s awesome!
Everything was going great (smiling while scrolling down) then I saw this picture! It scares the hell outta me as that is way too neat and organized my friend! Pics like that make Cliff look bad.
Wow, that’s close!
As there is no NGRC 2026, the time is ripe to advertise that the World Garden Railway Convention will be held in NZ next year. 
two things come to mind:
how long is that tunnel?
if longer than 2 armlengths - do you have an access hatch in the middle?
i love these garden chairs.
(farmers here call them “worry-chairs”. after planting they sit in them and worry about rain, insects etc. )
but for outdoor modelrailroaders they are the ideal armchairs.
drink on the armrest, facing some unfinished area, one can imagine perfectly, how this section will look, if/when one stands up to do something…
Thanks for the compliments Cliff, I think everyone had a good time - well at least no one complained to me… 
I was happy that everyone’s gear ran on the track with no problems, first test under fire so to speak.
No benchwork changes at all, I had enough room at the back next to the tall posts to sneak it in. I just set it level with the mainline each time I reached a joist.
Rooster - I apologise profusely. That kind of pic has no place on this forum, nor in any self respecting worshop! It was a moment of madness, driven by the need to find those two small coupler screws in front of the T5000 and the end result of 20 mins of angry searching. It won’t happen again (the posting part that is… ).
In mitigation - here’s situation normal on the rest of the bench each side of the offending bit.
Cheers
N
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Neil,
Is that a set of ore tipple plans you’re working on?
Thanks Korm, indeed your eye has spotted the weak point - there is no access hatch, and only a mutant will have arms long enough (2.1m if you still need a number…). Plus getting close enough.
I’m completely relying on good track work, and a poking stick if anything derails. Looking for critturs will part of the pre start checks now I guess.
The chairs are great. Eye level is just below the tracks, and a safe beverage spot! Yes, tested. 
Cheers
N
PS. this is still all your fault.
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Sure is Bill, Garden Texture #20283.
Cheers
N
Neil,
Just a thought. If anything can possibly go wrong it will happen in a spot that can’t be easily accessed.
Case in point.
A friend had a RR that wound down the side of a hill probably dropping a hundred feet in elevation over several hundreds of feet of track. Right in the middle he had a tunnel about 12 feet portal to portal with no access.
One day running my train down his line when it got to the bottom it had no pilot truck and was bouncing along in a very un-prototypical manner. Guess where the pilot truck was, that’s right. It was right in the damn middle of that tunnel not off by more than 2 inches from dead center.
It took a good hour to fish it out, in the meantime the entire line was shut down.
Just saying easy access can be a good thing.
“No, Sir, that cain’t be.
That must be libel and slander.
I never, ever had to do anything with something built so sturdy and hasty…”
I never considered equipment failure - good point Rick.
Total length is 7’, so I’ve got a dead spot of 1’ - 2’ in the middle from arms reach. I was ballasting in there the other day with a cup and brush on a pole and it’s wasn’t too horrendous to get in. Either way, it’ll be a poking stick if something is right in the middle.
It’s the longest planned tunnel, next longest is about 5’ so it passes the reach test.
Cheers
N
It was a fun build. I saw that he made a roof section later on. I wish I’d known he was shutting down shop.
Yep, been there done that and all good until your buddy brings over his circus train. You don’t even wanna know what happened to the gorilla.
Neil, I think you use rail clamps and if so you could always cut the track about one foot on either side of the tunnel. That way if you have a real disaster you could just unscrew the track on either side and slowly pull it out.
I did that on my RR going under my three foot wide upper deck steps. However my RR is ground level so I just revert to the long stick if it happens but in your raised level it makes a good case for the defendant. Besides it’s nice to see Korm getting blamed for something instead of me for once.
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I did something similar to what Rooster suggests in my dead end Deep Cut Tunnel. The track was mounted fast to a piece of treated lumber and that section connected with rail clamps. The plan was so I could remove the track for maintenance, but it never needed it!
This mock up show it…
I don’t think it’s a good idea to apologize to @Rooster . That is like asking for “trouble”.
If I dropped these screws in my shop, I would just be buying more. They would get swallowed up by the clutter.
1 Like